There will be a meeting on January 26th at 7:00 p.m. at the Phoenix Country Day School for the purpose of receiving comments from the members of the rock climbing community on the City of Scottsdale plans for the North Access Area. This meeting will be held in conjunction with the Arizona Mountaineering Clubís January Member meeting, part of the program of which is the annual photo competition. If you are interested in hearing about the climber access and overall climbing management, please plan to attend. No AMC membership is required. You will have opportunity to give your feedback to the City representatives.

During the Spring of 2009 the North Access Area of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve will be initiated by the formal opening of the Tomís Thumb trail. That activity will constitute the official opening of that section of the Preserve to the public. Because rock climbing is one of the recognized and legitimate recreational activities in the Preserve, the City wants educate the climbing community about its plans and to receive feedback. The North Access Area serves the north end of the McDowell Mountains that are south of Dynamite Boulevard/Rio Verde Drive.

A core component of the mission of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve is to protect the sensitive environment of the Sonoran Desert. It is therefore highly important to manage human impacts. Indeed, most activity within the Preserve will be limited to the official Trail system. Because of those sensitivities climbers will be required to use the main trail system as the primary approaches to rock crags. There will be limited and defined climber access paths leading from the main trail system to the rock crags. Further, rock climbing will be limited to the existing and historical rock climbing crags. The City of Scottsdale worked out the successful model for this system at Pinnacle Peak.

The Presentation will include maps of the North Access Area layout and climber access paths. It will be followed by a question and answer session as well as comment cards. Input is also available by sending emails to the contact person listed below.

For questions or to send comments, please contact Erik Filsinger, the Climber Liaison to City of Scottsdale staff at smorefil@aol.com, or Scott Hamilton, City of Scottsdale Trails Planner at SHamilton@scottsdaleaz.gov

The Address for the Meeting is:

Auditorium (next to the main parking lot off of Stanford) Phoenix Country Day School 3901 E. Stanford Drive Paradise Valley, 85253